Gentleman,
there is no such thing as a stupid triple 9 call on the motorways within reason, straps people … cars broken down in lane 1 2 or 3 is life threatening the pol will come out as explained it will be an immediate response from the rpu or traffic divisions don’t feel anyway about calling 999 if a car is broken down in lane one or people are walking etc a ratchet is a life threatening situation to a motor cyclist.
discoman:
Gentleman,there is no such thing as a stupid triple 9 call on the motorways within reason, straps people … cars broken down in lane 1 2 or 3 is life threatening the pol will come out as explained it will be an immediate response from the rpu or traffic divisions don’t feel anyway about calling 999 if a car is broken down in lane one or people are walking etc a ratchet is a life threatening situation to a motor cyclist.
Last time I belled 999 in a similar sitation the woman on the other scoffed in incredulity that I had dared to contact them for such a trivial matter and informed me that they do not have enough resources to deal with them. 
Car exhaust pipes that have fallen off causes cars to take evasive action.
I would just leave it ,cretins like that need removing from the gene pool
A missing man hole drain cover warrants a call.If you drive in the hole that is serious damage to any vehicle.And if not on a motorway a cyclist could end up in a wheel chair for life when the front wheel goes in.
Where i live i saw the tarmac road surface had a large bubble in it getting bigger.It looked like it was going to burst open soon.Made the 999.Within 20 minutes engineers had arrived with full crew to dig up the road at 21.30 much to the annoyance of a man up the road telling the crew off for making a noise at night.
toby1234abc:
Where i live i saw the tarmac road surface had a large bubble in it getting bigger.It looked like it was going to burst open soon.Made the 999.Within 20 minutes engineers had arrived with full crew to dig up the road at 21.30 much to the annoyance of a man up the road telling the crew off for making a noise at night.
Yes, of course they did.
Rob K:
discoman:
Gentleman,there is no such thing as a stupid triple 9 call on the motorways within reason, straps people … cars broken down in lane 1 2 or 3 is life threatening the pol will come out as explained it will be an immediate response from the rpu or traffic divisions don’t feel anyway about calling 999 if a car is broken down in lane one or people are walking etc a ratchet is a life threatening situation to a motor cyclist.
Last time I belled 999 in a similar sitation the woman on the other scoffed in incredulity that I had dared to contact them for such a trivial matter and informed me that they do not have enough resources to deal with them.
You need to tell them to put you through to the Road policing unit, who do take it as serious! trust me the police will arrive with blues and twos!!
To put you straight on a couple of this (& i have mentioned these before!..
The BEST method of contacting ANYONE if there is something that is a danger to life & limb on the MOTORWAY or HA trunk road (we don’t deal with other roads) is by the SOS phone. This will be answered by a HA Traffic Officer in the control room (ie, me & my colleagues!) who will know exactly where you are making the call from, will ask all the relevant questions to get as much information as possible, and as we’re taking the details, other emergency services will be called by our colleagues, giving CORRECT information to them. Matrix signs will be immediately set to warn other drivers, and markerposts are what we live on!
Police 999 operators vary from Force to Force, some can sometimes be very difficult and often they have no idea where you’re talking about as they’re more used to street names etc, “Markerpost? what’s that?” you can be lucky and get one that has worked on the motorway desk, but by & large most haven’t. We often get logs electronically sent to us with “Highway disruption, M6” or “somewhere on the M65” fortunately they always put the informants telephone number on the log, so instead of sending the log back with “Give us a clue!” we recall the informant and get the information first hand.
Due to austerity measures inflicted by HM Government (& that’s who we work for) HATO’s no longer patrol, they have to park up at certain spots and await to be sent to incidents, to save on fuel cost & vehicle usage!
HATO will not stop at every broken down vehicle, only the ones they don’t already know about. Most of the larger breakdown companies inform us of drivers broken down in our area, also drivers are now using the SOS boxes more and we organise their recovery for them, once we’ve got the details, unless there is a safety issue with the occupants / location etc, the HATO for that area will only be made aware of the vehicle, not despatched to it. Now if later he is despatched to something nearby, then yes he will drive past it, there is no need to stop with it. Also even if he’s not aware of the vehicle, he will most likely be on route to something reported as live lane, which obviously takes presidence.
As for the HA information line…(personal opinion only…I believe that it’ll get worse! can’t expand. )
Last time I broke down on the motorway with a coach, I used the emergency phone and they were brilliant, HA didnt come out but a police car did and he didnt bat an eye lid when I told him there was 50 live guns on board, just asked if they’d been drinking 
The real Biffo:
To put you straight on a couple of this (& i have mentioned these before!..The BEST method of contacting ANYONE if there is something that is a danger to life & limb on the MOTORWAY or HA trunk road (we don’t deal with other roads) is by the SOS phone. This will be answered by a HA Traffic Officer in the control room (ie, me & my colleagues!) who will know exactly where you are making the call from, will ask all the relevant questions to get as much information as possible, and as we’re taking the details, other emergency services will be called by our colleagues, giving CORRECT information to them. Matrix signs will be immediately set to warn other drivers, and markerposts are what we live on!
Police 999 operators vary from Force to Force, some can sometimes be very difficult and often they have no idea where you’re talking about as they’re more used to street names etc, “Markerpost? what’s that?” you can be lucky and get one that has worked on the motorway desk, but by & large most haven’t. We often get logs electronically sent to us with “Highway disruption, M6” or “somewhere on the M65” fortunately they always put the informants telephone number on the log, so instead of sending the log back with “Give us a clue!” we recall the informant and get the information first hand.
Due to austerity measures inflicted by HM Government (& that’s who we work for) HATO’s no longer patrol, they have to park up at certain spots and await to be sent to incidents, to save on fuel cost & vehicle usage!
HATO will not stop at every broken down vehicle, only the ones they don’t already know about. Most of the larger breakdown companies inform us of drivers broken down in our area, also drivers are now using the SOS boxes more and we organise their recovery for them, once we’ve got the details, unless there is a safety issue with the occupants / location etc, the HATO for that area will only be made aware of the vehicle, not despatched to it. Now if later he is despatched to something nearby, then yes he will drive past it, there is no need to stop with it. Also even if he’s not aware of the vehicle, he will most likely be on route to something reported as live lane, which obviously takes presidence.
As for the HA information line…(personal opinion only…I believe that it’ll get worse! can’t expand. )
So in short, a complete waste of time contacting you about anything. Most of the SOS phones don’t work or have been disconnected anyway according to old media reports because “everyone has a mobile phone” now and they are allegedly too expensive to maintain. If a simple call using the motorway marker boards (the full size blue ones, not the phone marker posts) is too difficult for you thick ■■■■■ to deal with then quite simply just forget about it. I don’t have the time nor inclination to do your job for you and whatever the problem is with the road can stay a problem.
I just look forward to the next time one of you posts on here about contacting you via the HA number to report problems as you’ll be needing a very strong suit of armour.
Typical Rob!
No the SOS boxes are not usually out of order, there may from time to time be the odd one that breaks but they are checked & cleaned regularly, and if one is reported as faulty it’s repaired PDQ.
The large blue markerpost tally up with the number on the SOS box, and with the smaller markerpost that are approx every 100 yds apart.
I have ALWAYS said that the SOS box is the best way to contact us, but for those drivers who won’t stop on the H/S to report it (for what-ever reason) I’ve said that the next is by 999, then by the HA info line, as when they do answer you, there is obviously a delay in that info getting to us where we can do something about it.
What I do say, is contact the HA via that information line if you have a complaint, don’t just be a keyboard warrior and whine on here!
The real Biffo:
Typical Rob!No the SOS boxes are not usually out of order, there may from time to time be the odd one that breaks but they are checked & cleaned regularly, and if one is reported as faulty it’s repaired PDQ.
The large blue markerpost tally up with the number on the SOS box, and with the smaller markerpost that are approx every 100 yds apart.I have ALWAYS said that the SOS box is the best way to contact us, but for those drivers who won’t stop on the H/S to report it (for what-ever reason) I’ve said that the next is by 999, then by the HA info line, as when they do answer you, there is obviously a delay in that info getting to us where we can do something about it.
What I do say, is contact the HA via that information line if you have a complaint, don’t just be a keyboard warrior and whine on here!
Your mate extrucker said he already did do but it will have been filed in the bin. Waste of time anyway and I won’t be contacting them again. [zb] it.
Rob said: "So in short, a complete waste of time contacting you about anything. Most of the SOS phones don’t work or have been disconnected anyway according to old media reports because “everyone has a mobile phone” now and they are allegedly too expensive to maintain. If a simple call using the motorway marker boards (the full size blue ones, not the phone marker posts) is too difficult for you thick [zb] to deal with then quite simply just forget about it. I don’t have the time nor inclination to do your job for you and whatever the problem is with the road can stay a problem.
I just look forward to the next time one of you posts on here about contacting you via the HA number to report problems as you’ll be needing a very strong suit of armour.
[/quote]
It’s an urban myth about the emergency phones being disconnected. As stated, they remain the best and safest way to contact the authorities…they can use the phone’s (known) location to find exactly where you and your vehicle are, and you go straight through to the relevant control. On most motorways they can even get a visual on you by camera straight away. If you have to stop, there is no advantage in using a mobile…and if you are still moving you need to think very carefully about using a (handheld) mobile to call the police!
So mobile HATO’s aren’t allowed to be mobile anymore and won’t stop to help anymore. Why not save even more cost and scrap them totally?
m1cks:
So mobile HATO’s aren’t allowed to be mobile anymore and won’t stop to help anymore. Why not save even more cost and scrap them totally?
Because supposedly if they cost 90 million per annum to run but save 500 million in congestion uk plc is 400 million better off.
They are supposed to deal with live Lane stuff rather than prevention ?
That’s why vosa look at loading etc they seem to be working on prevention rather than clear up.
GasGas:
…and if you are still moving you need to think very carefully about using a (handheld) mobile to call the police!
Well I would think it would have to be a particularly moronic copper who nicked you for dialling 999 on the move, maybe I’m being naive though… 
You are legally quite within your rights to phone 999 awhilst driving and using a hand held mobile.
Wouldn’t recommend trying it to ring H/A though.
the maoster:
You are legally quite within your rights to phone 999 awhilst driving and using a hand held mobile.Wouldn’t recommend trying it to ring H/A though.
+1, you’re allowed to use a mobile to dial 999 
Rob K , I got a reply today stating that they will investigate but usually that time of night would only have one operator on calls at a time and if they are dealing with a long call, there will be a queue. 
Give people a choice in any decision and it will usually be messed up.
The call should be 999 and then they can make the decision, thats the way it used to be…But these days everyone is afraid of making the wrong decision with the culture of litigation.
They call it progress.